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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Markoff who wrote (24459)	8/19/1998 2:19:00 PM
From: Achilles	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Nancy, yes I've read it, but I don't think you'd like it. To put it very simply, Gibbon's argument was that Christianity, with its ideas of peace and its focus on the afterlife etc., caused the fall of the empire, not lax morals. Naturally not many agree with him. The idea that immorality caused the decline and fall is not (to my knowledge) argued by anyone who knows much about Roman history: the worst immorality came in the first century AD under the Claudian and Flavian emperors, Rome did not fall until the sixth century AD, and that was under Christian emperors. Why did Rome fall? Well, I don't want to write a book: many others have. If you're sincerely interested in the topic, I can recommend some good books.

To: Alan Markoff who wrote (24459)	8/19/1998 2:41:00 PM
From: Rambi	Respond to of 108807

Nancy-- I read parts of Gibbons' A History of the Decline and Fall of the R.E. in Latin VI. THe whole thing is around 3000 pages and something like eight volumes. THe only reason I mention this is because to blame the decline on moral decay is simplistic. It was the progressive impact of many events in a long history: the manipulation of the Caesars who managed to make it look as if the people had a republic, military despotism, the invasion of barbarians from the North and East, the foundation of Constantinople, the division of the monarchy, and to a great extent the establishment of Christian sects and the Crusades. The period in which Gibbons wrote influenced his views, although no one denies it is a brilliant and comprehensive work.